Life as I see it….

I’ve had my suspicions…

First of all I’d like to extend thanks to everyone who read and responded to my last post on the sorry state of current education in our country. It was heartening and depressing in equal measure to discover that we are not alone here in the UK –this seems to be a global issue: your replies and points that you raised were both interesting and supportive – thank you all very much.

Let’s move on to a lighter topic this week. Well I wish we could, but this week is all about weight: my weight. It’s not something I’ve ever had to watch or be bothered about, having been blessed with height and a speedy metabolism. I don’t have a sweet tooth either (apart for a penchant for chocolate) so I’ve never tucked into puddings with relish. My weight has remained around the same for the best part of thirty odd years, with occasional minor fluctuations of a few pounds either up or down – in the same way as stock market linked investments go up and down – it’s just a pity that my particular savings account is not travelling in the same direction as the needle on my bathroom scales.

I don’t even weigh myself that often so it came as a bit of a shock to discover that, just after Christmas, I was heavier than I’ve ever been. And I’m talking more than just a few pounds. How did that happen? I wasn’t aware of any clothes feeling tight. I don’t stick to a dress size either, I tend to buy things that fit rather than squeezing into a size for the sake of false modesty so a quick scan through my wardrobe revealed that I’m anything from a size 10 to a 16, depending on the make and cut.

So, what do I normally do when the fluctuations are heading in the wrong direction? Well, I cut down on the eating and exercise more. Simple. In a couple of weeks the needle on the scales is where it should be. Except that this time it isn’t. I’ve already designated myself a chocolate free zone until Easter and am eating only what I consider to be necessary foods – so no cakes, biscuits, buns, crisps, nuts – and slightly less of everything else.

That, as far as I’m concerned, is dieting, isn’t it? To be honest, I tend to switch off when people talk about their diets – I catch bits of conversations where they are earnestly debating calorie counting, eating just bacon for a fortnight or liquidised cabbage and fretting over their body mass index – but maybe I’m missing something.

I do have a theory, mind you. I’ve had my suspicions for a while but I’m pretty sure I’m right. Blogging is making us me fat. Not only is it fascinating to dip in and out of other people’s lives and thoughts it is another way to learn any amount of new things and I’ve been spending far too much time sitting in front of my computer screen rather than properly exercising.

Blog – it even looks like a ‘fat’ word to me – all those rounded letters – so I’m going to make a conscious effort to go back to some formal exercise. I know it can be done- my blogging pal, Red Hen, over in Southern Ireland runs and blogs (not at the same time, although I wouldn’t put it past her), about places she encounters while out running, providing a wonderful travelogue of her part of the world. Couple that with the way she writes and you’ll hear her Irish lilt coming through her words – and not even out of breath.

That’s all I’m going to say about my weight – I shan’t update you over every ounce – and I will still be reading all the blogs I follow. What I won’t be doing is getting side tracked along the way – and that will be much more difficult than keeping my promise to myself to eat less.

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Yeah, isn’t it so easy to sit down and read and write and – er – get nothing done. She says, having been reading, and writing and getting nothing done. I think a dog walk is called for. Or he’s calling for one to be more accurate.

Me, I’ve always been 50-55 (kgs) although edged up to 60 of late, which if nothing else, has put me on the right side of the BMI index rather than the Biafran reject side. I’m not fat, I’m tall, I’m not overweight, and I could do with more exercise too. Hello dog and lead, shall we go out?

It’s definitely the exercise I’m lacking so need to get a grip – not that the weather’s been much of an incentive. A dog would be an incentive, without a doubt. We’re not great on pets in our family though. Allergic to some (cats) and not really that interested in anything in a cage. A dog would make sense – I know they become part of the family, it’s just I don’t want full responsibility for one and I know from experience with other pet varieties, it would be down to me to look after it. Do I want to house train an animal? Not really. Do I want to clear up its poo in a little plastic bag? Absolutely not. So there we have it. I’d do the walking but resent everything else, so I’m destined to walk by myself, go swimming or resurrect my tennis four. I could try parking the car miles from where I need to go – that would help…

Picking up poo in a plastic bag is a small price to pay for moving your arse. ‘I’ll just read this next blog post’ becomes ‘OK we’ll go out’. It was meant to be a longer walk today but I chose the only ten minutes out of 24 hours for the long walk when it started to rain. There’s always tomorrow.

House training isn’t difficult – you do have kids don’t you? I can’t imagine doing that :D But if you don’t want animals, then you are right not to have them. tt just is one hell of a motivator for me. Nothing else would get me out of bed at 6am.

I have never been swimming in gib yet, I really must try the pool before I die!

Swimming is alright – we’ve recently had a lovely new pool installed at the local leisure centre (I always think that’s a bit of a misnomer – leisure = lounging around, not thrashing up and down a pool), but again, I’ve got out of the habit plus the timings for lane swimming isn’t ideal. Excuses…

I’ve had the very same problem Jenny, and I blogged about it back in November, I think. My weight started to climb after the convergence of two events – when I dove headlong into writing (and all those sedentary hours with the laptop), and when I reduced my work hours to part time (made me really lazy and gave me even more sedentary hours). Terrible. So I started a daily vigorous exercise regimen, 7 days per week, no exceptions. It’s made a difference, more than I realized. I’m planning a blog post about it.
Stick with it, Jenny. I feel your pain.

I remember your post, Gwen – and you were brave enough to post a photo with it, too. So how is your regime going? I guess it might have been interrupted due to the awful weather in your part of the world – but I’m looking forward to your post about it. ;)

Thank you. I’ll likely post it in the next couple of weeks (with photos, too). I got such a great response when I put the “before” and “since” photos up on Facebook, I thought I should share them with the blogging community, too.

“Blog – it even looks like a ‘fat’ word to me.” I agree, Jenny. Who thought up that name anyway? Unfortunately as you know, our metabolism slows drastically the older we get, so we have to cut back the calories and exercise more than ever. You might want to get your thyroid level checked just to make sure yours isn’t under active.
I’ve had a strict exercise routine for years and now with the blog, there is no blogging for me until I’ve completed my one hour routine, 7 days a week. For me, the exercise is like going to work every day, it’s something I have to do. Best of luck to you, Jenny…you can do it!

Yes I think you are right – age must have something to do with it. One of my friends always told me it would catch up with me someday and I guess she was right on that one. However – I intend to get a grip before I slide down an even steeper slippery slope. Discipline and regularity of exercise is the key – it’s not all about the eating!

I’ve not even got the excuse of age, so need to get a grip before that sets in even more! I would love to get more exercise and since I’ve started looking after myself more, it’s been great to have just a little tiny bit more free time to do so.

Oh my goodness, Jill, that’s harsh! No blogging until after exercise! You are right though, it is something you have to make yourself do, if you can. Ideally I would do a lot more exercise. However the job and family are sort of compulsory, and the writing is next down the list, so I have to compensate by eating less. I’m short as well, so need to be really careful. I think it’s about being realistic with yourself and the needs of your body.

Lol! Although our blogs are important, I think our health comes first. I thought about investing in a treadmill with a desk. Sitting for long periods of time can be as bad as smoking…at least, that’s what some of the recent studies show.

Totally – there’s something so good about exercise and I do feel good after having done some. I feel lucky now my girls are older and I have more time for myself. Especially when we can do sports together like a game of badminton. One of my friends with younger children was very envious about waiting for that time to roll on for her – her eldest is 8!

Here I am, bragging about the plank again. However, last year at this time, I too, had an alarming jolt about my weight being the most it has ever been. (Except when I was married to an Italian, just briefly, but enough to put on weight even at the tender age of twenty-nine!)

The plank is a good exercise for the core of your body. And it will make you feel like you weigh less, just because you are thinner in the middle.

Now about blogging. Yes. Blog. I see the round fat letters. I am a synaesthete too. I can even visualize the word blog on a scale can’t you? But Amy Adams is a blogger and not just in her movie “Julie and Julia” (I think that was what it was called. It was about Julia Child,. she blogged through every recipe she tried in “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking”)

I feel your pain. I have been there. Recently I felt my pants being baggy and I thought I was losing weight. I went to the doctor for something and I was shocked I had gained. You probably have just redistributed your weight.

The pants were spandex and I had been taking them to the dry cleaners.

Yay! Redistribution of weight. Yes, that’s it – the answer! But… I have been briskly walking the past week every afternoon after work and I feel so much more alive. It’s eating into my blogging time, but hey, health has got to be the first consideration!

Well I agree. Blogging must be making me heavier. It can’t have been the extra cake, cookies, shortbread, puddings from Christmas. I’m sure it has nothing to do with needing comfort snacks during this really extended arctic weather blast. And certainly nothing to do with not wanting to venture out for long.
Having a small snack helps with the writing process too.
I think I will check the batteries in the scales, maybe they are a little off.
This is all quite worrying. I think I’ll go and have a sit down. Maybe a cup of tea and a digestive will help.

Yes, you see, it’s the snacking I’m giving up – unless it’s an apple. And trying not to sit down as much, although I do a fair bit of that in my working day now whereas years ago, I was always on the go – the desk part of the job was minimal – and of course, in those days there were no computers to distract us – just an old typewriter with a tangled ribbon. Ah yes, those were the days – Oooh, I can feel another blog post coming on… :)

Oh I know this feeling so well. I’ve definitely noticed how easy it is to stay plonked in front of the laptop for hours and not get out for that walk I meant to do hours before. Along with everything else, if I don’t get my daily walk in BEFORE I even think about turning on my laptop then I’m a gonner. My tighter-than-normal jeans tell me so. The weather hasn’t helped mind you. Not having the excuse to get out in the garden either. I’m with you Jenny (and I don’t do diets per se either) and I wish you all the best with your new regime :-)

Good plan to go out early – might try that on days off. I ought to walk to work really but I tend to run out of time and end up taking the car. Once the weather is better and the evenings are lighter I’ll do a quick circuit on the common. This, I suppose, is a late new year’s resolution. I’m fine with the eating less – I don’t like cheating myself – what’s the point?! It’s the organisation of everything else that takes some planning ;)

I think this is true about stress – teachers will reduce any food left in the staff room to a metaphorical carcass within just one break time. Having said that, our teachers seem to do an insane variety and amount of sport between them, and few of them are overweight so I think you are onto something with the exercise.

Oh, you have rung a bell on this topic, Jenny. And you know what they say about un-ringing a bell. Can’t be done. So I’ll hope you keep us posted on your successes, including the secrets you discover that make you successful, as well as the agonies of failures (that, via your honest, funny voice) will remind us that the diet game can be humorous as well as frustrating.

I’ll share this little medical gem that my doctor told me: As we age we should donate our smaller-sized clothing to those who are smaller, younger and more concerned with clothing size. Our older bodies are smart enough to know that good health is not accomplished by obsessing over calories, but by appreciating each sunrise and sunset with deep breaths as we walk briskly around our neighborhoods, and enjoying delicious foods shared in laughter and joy with family and friends.

I love the sound of your doctor – how sensible he sounds. I’m not so worried about the food side of things – I’m good at denying myself gastronomic pleasures – but it’s the fitting in of regular exercise that will be the test as so much of my free time is now attached to the computer. Still, there will be no excuses, I shall sally forth and become svelte and healthy once more… ;)

Same thing happened to me around 40. I never, and I mean never gave what I ate, or how much I ate a second thought. I burn several thousand calories off on a typical day @ work (my job is very physical) but after 40, something definitely changed in my metabolism and now, I do have to be more mindful of that 2nd or 3rd serving. I don’t like it one bit!

Well, I don’t need to tell you Jenny, that my diets go well until I go out to meet friends..looking forward to the next time. Like you just cutting down on the days I am not out. Like you can’t bear listening to people who dwell on it endlessly. After serious operation several years ago I moaned to doctor about my increased weight. He replied that at least I was still alive. Now I just dress carefully.

Oh, just catching up with you tonight. Thanks for the mention but honestly, I`m no example to follow! I think I`ve actually managed to juggle blogging and eating and jogging. And the former two are undoing the good of the latter. So I probably should just do nothing instead! At least I`d be thinner that way!

You just gave me a good belly laugh. Thank you for that!
I think you are on the right track, though, and, for what it’s worth, my doctor just told me what your scales just told you. You must, therefore, be absolutely correct in your assertion about blogging.
And I’m going to do much the same as you. We can compare notes, if you wish, sometime later this spring :-)

Definitely – you’re on, Maurice! I’m going to take a leaf out of your book actually and when I go on all these ‘brisk’ walks that I’m planning, I shall take my camera with me so that I might be inspired to blog about wherever I go around the local area (once the flooding has subsided, I might add :) ).

Excellent! BTW–here’s what I’ve seen lately. It’s unlikely any of it will make it to the blog as I have posted similar previously… http://imgur.com/a/3Fien
That site–imgur.com is also a nice place for sharing bits of ourselves.

Gosh – just had a quick look at your pictures – ICE in the harbour! Although we’ve never had it so wet here as it is this year, at least it’s quite mild. You certainly have very chilly winters in your neck of the woods!

Blog rhymes with log. As in bump on a… which is what my body starts to feel like after I sit at the computer all day. Which I do way too frequently.

Sigh. I have to sign off now and get to exercising. I really could sit here all day and read (especially since I was “grounded” from blogging for 2 weeks, after my logic board failed and I had to buy a new computer that refused to read my old files and I couldn’t access any of my passwords…. ugh!)

If, after you get back to exercising more, you don’t shed a few kilos, consider having your thyroid levels checked.

These computers are great all the time they are behaving – such a pain when they start playing up (like children) – hope your techno problems get sorted – I believe Sherri is having similar troubles this week!
Oh, and thanks, Dr Tracy – that’s sage advice and I’ll keep a check on it :)

The only thing that has every made me stick to exercise is getting our dog – went down a dress size in the first few months without even trying. I can stick to it (even when I don’t want to) because it’s for his benefit. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t do with trying harder :-)

I know a dog would be an ideal way to ensure regular exercise – I have a friend who, just like you, had a new dog and lost weight almost instantly. It is something we’ve hummed over several times but have never taken that final leap. A dog is a big commitment isn’t it and I don’t think we’re ready for that at the moment – but I’d never say never…

I think for 10-15 days if you will do 30 min or 1 hour walk, yoga, dance or exercise that just will move you without quitting a day then you will find yourself cultivating a new habit and when you remember how feels good after finishing your exercise I think you won’t go back easily. I know it’s not easy but after 3-4 days you will get adopted and for great gift you will have healthier nicer looking body as well. You only need to cultivate new habit that’s it you don’t need to spend on gym’s pets or any other expensive or taking responsibility. I know you will do it!

Thanks for stopping by and the advice! Yes, getting into a good habit and making it part of one’s daily routine is definitely the way to go. Roll on some decent weather here in the UK so I can get out and WALK!

A good balance is important, and I think you will be able to manage fine with both blogging, eating and getting the exercise once you have made the conscious effort to routinely exercise!

I hate that feeling of jumping on the scales and staring at the numbers in disbelief – SOMETIMES you can understand why and know what to do and other times, when you are clueless it makes it even more difficult to get rid of the excess.

I’ve found that I can gain weight and loose weight very quickly and easily, though with a recent gain I decided not to fast loose it as I knew I could, though try to work out why it had happened in the first place. #DreadedYoYoSyndrome
I never diet, though do recognise the difference between what is good food and bad and when I over eat (which is sometimes too often).

Hi there! Thanks for dropping by and the encouragement. I have excellent will power, so the giving up of food and sticking to a regime in that sense is not difficult for me, but it is the discipline of exercise that eludes me especially when there are so many interesting blog posts to read! Arg! no excuses – I will get some fresh air!!

I used to go to the gym nearly every day at uni, doing at least an hour of cardio and half an hour of weights each time, and I was a size 10-12. Then I left, got a job, got two jobs, stopped having time for exercise or eating proper food and dropped to a UK size 6 within a year (I have a petite frame, so this isn’t as radical as it sounds). I like being thin, but it doesn’t feel healthy! Being healthy is a lot more important, so when I get older and my metabolism inevitably does a runner, I hope I won’t care. The people that used to scare me were the middle-aged women at the gym who were a size zero and had bodies ridged with muscle and tendons instead of, you know, womanly bits. They looked like Skeksis. Nobody normal wants women to look like teenage boys – it’s much more important to be yourself. If you feel like you and you’re healthy, then there isn’t a problem! Jx

Jade – you are sooo sweet. Yes, I’m happy being me – I’ve had a good innings weight wise, having never had to watch it before, so this age related dip in metabolism has raised issues for me that other people have had to put up with all their lives. I’m conscious that my regular exercise time is being whittled away by computer related interests which in turn hasn’t helped the weight situation – but it’s not horrendous – for the first time in my life I shall have to work at it a bit and make an effort to exercise more – but there’s no way I’d go to a gym. Exercise for me has to be in the fresh air for a start and I wouldn’t want to end up looking like a roast chicken, which is how my son described some of the ladies he’s seen at our local fitness centre.
If you were doing all that weight training then you would have been building muscle which weighs more than fat – but a size 6? That is svelte – but seeing you in photos on your blog I’d say you look absolutely fine – and a wonderful size to be a ‘clothes horse.’ – Make the most of it!

OH yes, Indeedy I agree wholehearedly, Blogging is fattening, (‘ceptiing my fingers, the right index one ‘specially, scrolling down your comments… what a workout!”!) :-) … I blame the loss of my friend and heart companion, (not my other half) but my Girl, Bess, (Welsh Border Collie) she used to give me a proper workout, every morning up at six, out to the woods, walk? ’twas a hike for miles… but now, I’m desolate, without her telling me to get a move on… I freely admit I am …erm…a bit wider than I was, I need to wake up and smell the roses, out ‘n about, (but I cannot replace my Bess, I still have tears when I think of her last walk without me) So, a good talking too. that’s what it’ll take. Get Up Off That Chair… erm. just after I post this comment of course! xPenx

Haha, you are so right – there’s always one more comment to write/blog post to read – what we SHOULD be doing takes a back seat – oh, that’s not a good analogy, is it. We don’t want to be sitting, we need to be out there – walking! Sorry to hear about your Bess – a dog would definitely make all the difference especially to the motivation. Thanks for dropping by Pen – I shall be dropping in on you, too – once I’ve had my work out!